The other day I had an interesting thought. I was sitting in church and the couple next to me was sitting with their teenage daughter. I did not recognize her or them even though I am the student minister at my church. As I sat there through the service I noticed that the parents were very engaged in everything that was going on in the service. The interesting thing is that the daughter didn’t seem to be engaged at all. As a matter of fact it appeared as if she was getting ready to go before a firing squad! She was not interested in what was going on at all. It was obvious, she did not want to be there. So I began to pray. (All the while trying to pay attention to the sermon. Me multi-task? Failure!) Anyway, there was one word that God began to tattoo on my mind. It was really weird actually. That word was – ANSWER. You know, you would think that because I am a youth minister I could easily step in and talk with people to ask them about there daughter. But I have to admit, there are times when it just does not come easy, and for some reason this was one of those times. But there it came to my mind again – ANSWER. I even thought of a situation in my own family in which parents had struggled with a teenage daughter at one time. (This daughter is now incredibly passionate about the Lord, yay!) And there it came once again…ANSWER. What if there had been a time in their lives in which they sat in church with their daughter and someone noticed this same kind of attitude from a teenage daughter sitting in church with their parents or sitting anywhere for that matter. What if it was just at a restaurant. Remember the word – ANSWER. So back to my experience on that day. God compelled me after the service to talk with these parents and introduce myself to them and ask about their daughter. (The daughter had walked off immediately once the service was over.) To be quite honest nothing major came from me talking to them other than just getting to know them and also letting them know that I was the youth minister and I would love to have their daughter involved in the youth ministry. But here is the thing, ANSWER. Why the word ANSWER? Well here is why: God laid it on my heart because He wanted me to realize too often that I could be the ANSWER to someone’s prayer. Too often people are persevering in prayer that someone, anyone, will reach out to them, a relative, or even a friend. They know that they have talked and talked with their loved one or friend until they were “blue in the face” and that the person they love shut them out. It is like the prodigal that would not listen to his father. But what if someone else had come along and been the ANSWER to a prayer to reach out to the prodigal? I believe too often we get stuck in our own fears and insecurities to step out in faith and trust that God wants us to be an ANSWER in someone’s life. So who is it? You know, right now, there is someone that you need to reach out to and BE THE ANSWER to someone’s prayer. The question is, are you willing?
